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ASME Energy Policy Guiding Principles April 2020 Energy Policy Guiding Principles The American Society of Mechanical Engineers® ASME® Energy Policy Guiding Principles April 2020 OVERVIEW Energy technology is currently undergoing the most rapid technological change since the replacement of gas streetlights with electric lighting and the horse with the internal combustion engine. The widespread adoption of renewable electrical generation, the deployment of electric vehicles, increased production of natural gas, and the development of grid-level energy storage are some of the most visible aspects of this transformation. Because of the impact of these technology changes on national priorities, it is in the national interest that third-party organizations provide accurate and unbiased technical advice to policy makers. Energy policy decisions should incorporate science and engineering analysis that show the impacts of policy decisions over the entire energy system using approaches that incorporate life cycle analysis from procurement and construction through operation and decommissioning, as well as longer-term impacts. These analyses should be coupled with sound economic analysis that translates these impacts into economic and societal costs and benefits. The ASME recommends that the five following principles be applied to the development of U.S. energy policy: 1. The goal of United States energy policy should be to provide energy that is affordable, reliable, and sustainable. 2. All decisions regarding energy generation and usage in the United States should be based on viewing energy as an integrated system. 3. Energy efficiency, and not just the generation and movement of energy, is part of a sound national energy policy. 4. Aggressive federal, state, and private investments in energy technology should be complemented by policies that allow these technologies to reach the market and support the development of a broad energy economy. 5. Changing technology will require substantial and sustained investment in an educated work force. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers® (ASME®) 2 Energy Policy Guiding Principles April 2020 GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN FOCUS 1. The goal of United States energy policy should be to provide energy that is affordable, reliable, and sustainable. Affordable energy impacts U.S. economic competitiveness and standards of living. In many manufactured products, energy is a major cost. These costs are highest in the seven industries classified as “energy-intensive”: food, pulp and paper, basic chemicals, refining, iron and steel, and nonferrous metals (such as aluminum, and nonmetallic minerals such as cement). In steelmaking, energy accounts for 27 percent of total costs. In cement-making, among the most energy-intensive industries, energy accounts for as much as 40 percent of the total costs . Because these industries often provide the raw materials for other economic sectors ranging from auto-making to household goods, these costs cascade throughout the economy. Energy costs are seen even in economic sectors not traditionally associated with energy usage, such as agriculture. Numbers from the USDA show that the combined costs of fuel, electricity, and energy-intensive fertilizers accounted for more than half the cost of a bushel of wheat . The average American household spent $1,340 on electricity, $644 on natural gas, propane, and other heating fuels and $1,977 on gasoline in 2017, accounting for 6.5 percent of household income. In many households, persons living in older less efficient housing and living on fixed incomes have energy expenses that are a much larger share of household budgets. Reliable energy traditionally has been defined in terms of the ability of electric generation to match demand and to remain resilient to meet challenges such as mechanical failure. Americans expect on-demand electricity for their homes and businesses. This definition of reliability also includes timely distribution of non-electric energy sources, such as gasoline and natural gas, to their point of use. Reliability has changed significantly in the past decade. Mechanical reliability must be complimented by resiliency: the ability of an energy system to both avoid, and rapidly recover from, events that may compromise power delivery. The aftermath of Hurricane Maria and recent earthquakes on Puerto Rico illustrates the challenges of resiliency. Hurricane Maria was the first Category Five hurricane to strike Puerto Rico in recorded history, and the island’s aging energy infrastructure was heavily damaged by the storm. The physical factors of rugged terrain and lack of connection to the electrical grid of the continental U.S. complicated restoration of power, with more than 10 months passing until full power was restored. Future energy systems should be designed and maintained to better withstand natural disasters, to minimize the consequences of local failures, and to recover more quickly. 1 As noted later in this document, the ASME believes that energy costs should be assessed as part of a life-cycle analysis. This means that, for both industrial and agricultural energy use, the ASME uses estimates that take into account capital costs, and not just operating costs. Therefore, the values quoted for energy use as a percentage of total costs in these contexts is lower than values quoted that look only at operating costs. 2 USDA 2013 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) The American Society of Mechanical Engineers® (ASME®) 3 Energy Policy Guiding Principles April 2020 Natural disasters are not the only point of vulnerability in energy systems. As an example, the 2015 cyber-attack on Ukraine’s electrical system demonstrated the vulnerability of electrical generation to attack by both state and non-state actors. These vulnerabilities are not confined to the electrical generation and distribution systems: they are present in all energy systems. Given the complexity of these systems, it is clear that they will never be invulnerable: instead they must be able to recover rapidly. Sustainable energy is the most challenging of these three energy goals to define. The impact of the energy system on human health and the environment should not be minimized. Energy production is most strongly associated with air pollution from combusting gases, which include: particulates, organic compounds, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur oxides. Other forms of air pollution, including methane, may be released during fossil fuel production. Energy production also contributes to water pollution, and creates solid waste such as coal ash. Air pollution is not the only sustainability issue tied to the energy system: concerns about the environmental impact of rare earth metals used in energy storage and the effects of all forms of electric generation on the environment. Energy is also a major user of water, an increasingly scarce resource. Energy production and transmission have an impact on wildlife, including loss of birds to wind turbines, pipelines interfering with migration routes, and the environmental damage associated with petroleum spills during production or transmission. In this context, minimizing the impact of any energy technology over its life cycle, and not just the time and point of use, becomes a major engineering challenge. 2. All decisions regarding energy generation and usage in the United States should be based on viewing energy as an integrated system. Changes made in one component of the energy generation network to meet the goals of affordable, reliable and sustainable energy will also have other impacts. For instance, widespread adoption of electric vehicles will change the requirements of electric generation and distribution. The scale of increased electric generation has the potential to be massive: current road vehicles use the equivalent of about 20 percent of current U.S. electric generation. This shift will only be economical, reliable, and sustainable if the expanded electrical production and transmission system is also economical, reliable, and sustainable. Vehicle owners may wish to utilize electricity generated using intermittent renewables such as solar or wind. Changes will be needed to the electric grid to manage new patterns of electricity usage. Production of electric vehicles will also require the production of energy storage materials, which will impact the manufacturing economy as well as increasing demand for heavy earth metals. Policy makers must take a holistic view of the energy system to ensure that decisions made to encourage new technologies do not have undesirable impacts elsewhere in the energy system. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers® (ASME®) 4 Energy Policy Guiding Principles April 2020 The technological challenges of integrating electric vehicles into the U.S. grid are only one example of the technological challenges in energy integration. In addition, as state and local governments set more ambitious renewable energy portfolio requirements, and as companies commit to using more renewable energy, the U.S. electrical grid must be upgraded and modernized to support such transitions. Because of both technological development and financial incentives such as tax credits, wind and solar dominate renewable electricity generation. Managing the intermittency of these resources as they become a larger percentage of U.S. electrical production will require both grid-scale storage, and smarter grid management. Grid-scale energy storage solutions will be different than storage solutions currently
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